In Real Life

"In Real Life" is a thought-provoking graphic novel for young adults, exploring the intersection of online gaming and global socio-economic realities. It follows Anda, a dedicated player of the MMORPG Coarsegold Online, who finds empowerment and friendship in her virtual world. Her perspective is challenged when she connects with a "gold farmer," a poor Chinese teenager earning a living by collecting in-game items for sale. This encounter forces Anda to grapple with complex ethical questions about game rules, real-world poverty, and cultural differences, making her question what "right" truly means. The book offers a sensitive and nuanced look at adolescence, empathy, and the impact of technology on global understanding.

Anda loves Coarsegold Online, the massively-multiplayer role playing game that she spends most of her free time on. It's a place where she can be a leader, a fighter, a hero. It's a place where she can meet people from all over the world, and make friends. Gaming is, for Anda, entirely a good thing. But things become a lot more complicated when Anda befriends a gold farmer -- a poor Chinese kid whose avatar in the game illegally collects valuable objects and then sells them to players from developed countries with money to burn. This behavior is strictly against the rules in Coarsegold, but Anda soon comes to realize that questions of right and wrong are a lot less straightforward when a real person's real livelihood is at stake. From acclaimed teen author Cory Doctorow and rising star cartoonist Jen Wang, In Real Life is a sensitive, thoughtful look at adolescence, gaming, poverty, and culture-clash. This title has common Core connections. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.